Stories about: Australian Financial Review

The relationship is much more sophisticated these days, throughout the corporate world. In Coles, technology requirements are defined by the business and IT working together, based on the business's strategic objectives.

By the time the board of retailing giant Coles Group recommended Wesfarmers' $21.9 billion takeover bid this week, the company had been in play for over a year. During that time its executives had to steer a steady course; maintaining shareholder value and positioning the business for future growth - setting to one side the knowledge that everything being done today could be unravelled tomorrow by a new owner.

In June, Coles Chief Executive John Fletcher went to bat for his CIO and the company's IT team via a letter to the editor after a comment piece appeared in The Australian Financial Review, which mooted that due diligence briefings had revealed "allegations of IT cost overruns and implementation delays which are said to be threatening the transformation of Coles' supply chain . . ." In a timely interview, Fletcher talks with CIO magazine's Beverley Head about the company's IT and his take on the controversy that arose during the takeover.

CIO magazine's Beverly Head asked Coles CEO John Fletcher and CIO Peter Mahler about the company's IT and the controversy that arose during the takeover. Here are their answers:

A steady stream of IT work being outsourced to offshore developers may be a rising concern for some professionals, but according to SAP executive John Lombard, the Australian workforce has nothing to fear.

CeBIT Australia organizer, Jackie Taranto, has poured cold water on reports of a falling out between the trade show and the Australian Government, following NSW Premier Morris Iemma's refusal to open this year's show.

Telecom New Zealand claims its $58 million ($NZ62.5million) buy-out of Gen-i should give the Kiwis more credibility in the Australian IT services and outsourcing market.

A special meeting of the Senate Committee investigating the government's IT outsourcing debacle was held Friday February 16 to determine what action should be taken against a senior bureaucrat in charge of the program who has admitted misleading Parliament.

F2 interactive is holding its breath as it scrutinises traffic figures on its Australian Financial Review website this month. Since the start of December, the AFR has blocked visitors from accessing many stories unless they are subscribers to the hard copy edition of the newspaper.

An Australian-founded internet technology company is rumoured to be set to sell out to foreign investors for a cool $285 million. Sharinga Networks, the company behind the technology powering free internet service provider FreeOnline, is believed to be in negotiations with an unnamed global telecommunications company to sell up to 50 per cent, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Austar's $13 million takeover bid for eisa has stalled following an announcement from regional TV network WIN that it was overlooked as a bidder for the struggling ISP.